Some good news for whale sharks - new ban on fishing practices

Good news coming from stories being reported today in Manila (where the Pacific Tuna Commission meeting is being held this week) - of course enforcement is always going to be a challenge, but its a very positive step.

In other news, the same meeting declined to do anything about over-fishing of tuna, sadly.

Victory for vulnerable whale sharks at Pacific meeting

06 DECEMBER 2012 MANILA (AFP) -- Asia and Pacific nations agreed at a meeting in the Philippines on Wednesday to take steps to protect whale sharks in a victory for the world's largest fish, officials said.

Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission nations agreed that tuna fishers must stop setting their nets around the vulnerable giants in order to catch smaller fish that gather underneath them.

The ban (tabled by the Australian fisheries delegation at the meeting) binds tuna-fishing nations such as the United States, China, and Japan, and was a victory for a coalition of small Pacific nations, called the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, that has been campaigning for this measure.